At Last

Dear Daniel,

At last it is so very very sunny here. Yesterday I walked to the shops and back and as I put my key into the door, I could feel the sweat on my back and at the sides of my nose and I was reminded of the humidity in Buenos Aires and how I would feel the same way this March when I arrived back to your apartment from a half day spent walking around the city.

I remember one such walk through the park near Plaza Italia when I made my way along Ave Dorrego back to the Palermo tube and the Cardigans album Life popped onto the iPod. I hadn't heard it in years and I had forgotten what a great soundtrack it is to sunshine. On many occasions during that super spring/summer of 1996, I would wake up hearing Rise and Shine shimmering from somewhere beyond the ceiling of my room.

I loved Nina Persson's voice. And here we are in 2009 and I'm walking in the sunshine and The Do come on the iPod and it makes me feel the same way. From time to time, Olivia B. Marilahti's vocals crackle down my spine, sounding a bit like a yawning dolphin, and breaking my heart in the heat.

Dear James,

It amuses me how people get so excited about heat in England. I suppose it's like people here getting excited about snow. It only snows every 70 years, so that's about right.

Good to see a surprise appearance from Jeff Lynne there at 3.19, and good to see a French band that sounds like a Swedish band. The theme of the video appears to be the search for one's "half-orange", a particularly annoying Spanish phrase that the French seem to be familiar with. What if you're a half-apple and you find your half-orange? Do you go on searching until you give up until you meet a half-banana, settle down and make a limited fruit salad?